Linnea and Lucas most popular in 2008

Linnea and Lucas/Lukas were the new leading first names in 2008. The trend with biblical boys' names and girls' names ending in “a” or “ah” continues. The most popular boys' name in 2008 was Lukas/Lucas. There are almost as many boys called Lukas as Lucas: 244 and 293 respectively. The name is taken from Lucanos, which is Latin and means "Light" or "Man from Lucania". The origin is the author of the Gospel according to Luke and the Acts of the Apostles.

Lucas was the most popular boys' name in Sweden in both 2006 and 2008. Otherwise, the previous most popular name, Mathias, is in 2nd place and Markus up again at number three. Emil has grown in popularity and is now in 4th place. Kristian/Christian, which is now in 5th place, has been in the top ten since 1974. Oliver has jumped 10 places to number 8, just before Tobias.

Trends go in waves

The popularity of a name goes in waves. Many of the currently popular names were also popular more than 100 years ago and have returned after a long absence. This applies to many of the biblical names, amongst others. Whether religion actually played a part in the popularity of these names in the 1800s is not known. In any case, they disappeared during the 1900s, but have now made a strong comeback. Name trends are fairly international, and the biblical boys' names are also popular outside Norway.

In contrast to the recent leading names, Linnea and Lucas/Lukas are "new", and prior to 1990 were hardly ever used. Noah, which is now in 14th place, is also totally new to Norway.

The name list in Sweden is the best indicator of what is happening in Norway. The trend with many girls’ names that end in “a” or “ah” probably stems from neighbours to the east. Over half of the girls born in 2008 were given a name ending in “a” or “ah”.